I75Z. 


UC-NRLF 


$B    n    EES 


00 

LO 

o 
o 


■K-  ''■'  - 


'v-rv 


Brief  gwEMENT 


OF  THEL 


r 


M\n, 


Trbat 

—      V9 


TO  T"ME^ 


N 


iteIi 


TATE 


SC*n.OT  VJkBL 


.  ••• 


.*.  : :  *;  ••:  .•. •*•. 


THE 

POLITICAL    VALUE 

HAWAIIAN    RECIPROCITY   TREATY 

TO    THE    UNITED    STATES. 
c,j«<^^>oc:o 

At  this  late  stage  of  the  debate  on  the  Hawaiian  Reci- 
procity Treaty  of  1875,  it  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  any 
statistical  details  respecting  its  operation  as  a  commercial 
convention.  The  subject  has  been  fully  discussed,  and  it  is 
conceded  by  its  advocates  that  the  advantages,  in  a  financial 
point  of  view,  have  been  and  still  are  with  the  Hawaiian 
Kingdom,  even  after  the  most  liberal  concessions  have  been 
granted  by  its  opponents.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to  refe^* 
now  to  its  political  value  to  the  United  States,  and  ask  the 
question  "Is  it  wise  policy  foe  the  American  Govern- 
ment TO  TERMINATE  IT  AT  THE  PEESENT  TIME  ?  " 

During  the  pa&t  few  years  there  has  been  an  extraordinary 
and  growing  desire  on  the  part  of  European  Powers  to  ac- 
quire territorial  possessions  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  which  may 
be  plainly  termed  an  **  annexation  fever,"  and  this  desire  ap- 
pears to  be  increasing  rather  than  subsiding.  The  recent 
contention  for  the  possession  of  the  Island  of  New  Guinea, 
lying  near  Australia,  raised  by  the  Australian  Colonies  and 
England  with  Germany  will  not  be  forgotten^  Though  th© 
question  is  not  yet  definitely  settled,  it  will  probably  be  done 
amicably  by  a  partition  of  the  Island  among  the  claimants. 
France,  already  possessed  of  the  Society  Islands  and  New 
Caledonia,  now  lays  claim  to  one  or  two  of  the  Hebrides 
Islands,  and  some  of  the  still  more  important  islands  of  the 

ivil52377 


[     2     ] 

group  west  of  Tahiti,  known  as  the  Leeward  Isles,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  large  island  of  Madagascar  in  the  Indian 
Ocean,  peopled  with  four  millious  of  natives. 

The  recent  half -suppressed  emeute  between  Spain  and 
Germany,  relative  to  the  ownership  of  the  Caroline  Islands 
in  the  Central  Pacific,  which  excited  an  angry  war-like  spirit 
on  the  part  of  the  Spanish  people,  and  was  settled  by  the  ar- 
bitration of  the  Pope,  will  be  remembered  by  all.  The  Caro- 
lines were  awarded  to  Spain,  while  the  German  flag  will  pro- 
tect the  Marshall  Islands.  Both  these  groups  lie  about  2000 
miles  west  of  Hawaii,  in  the  North  Pacific-  Germany  is  also 
understood  to  have  taken  the  initial  steps,  which  will  result 
in  a  "protectorate"  of  Samoa. 

The  outline  map  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  which  accompanies 
this  pamplet  will  illustrate  better  than  anything  else  the  re- 
lative position  of  the  various  harbors  and  islands  now  in  the 
possession  of  European  Naval  Powers,  and  also  show  the 
central  and  wonderfully  strategic  position  occupied  by 
Hawaii,  which  is  the  nearest  land  to  the  American  coast. 

The  possessions  of  Great  Britain  are  the  following :  the 
continent  of  Australia,  including  the  magnificent  harbors  of 
Sydney  and  Melbourne  ;  New  Zealand,  with  its  fine  harbor 
of  Auckland,  part  of  New  Guinea,  and  the  Fiji  Group,  with 
its  cluster  of  200  islands, — all  the  foregoing  being  in  the 
South  Pacific.  She  also  holds  Hongkong  and  Singapore  on 
the  Asiatic  coast,  and  Victoria  on  the  American  coast — in  all 
at  least  eight  or  ten  naval  stations  of  great  natural  strength 
and  importance.  The  acquisition  by  her  of  Hawaii  would 
render  almost  impregnable  her  cordon  of  naval  stations 
stretching  in  a  straight  line  from  Melbourne  on  the  South  to 
Vancouver's  Island  on  the  North. 

France  holds  the  Society  Islands,  with  their  fine  harbor 
of  Tahiti,  the  Marquesas  Group  lying  North  of  Tahiti,  some 
of  the  Leeward  Islands,  New  Caledonia  near  Australia,  one  or 
two  of  the  New  Hebrides  Islands,  and  Hue  on  the  Cochin- 
China  Coast. 

Germany  lays  protectoral  claim  to  the  Marshall  Islands, 
Samoa,  part  of  New  Guinea,  and  one  or  two  islands  near  the 
Equator. 


t     3     ] 

Russia  holds  undisputed  possession  of  the  Asiatic  coast, 
from  Bhering's  Straits  and  Kamschatka  to  Cor- a  and 
China. 

Spain  owns  the  Phillipine  Islands  with  the  spacious 
harbor  of  Manilla,  and  about  one  hundred  islands  of  the 
Caroline  Group. 

The  Dutch  Netherlands  have  long  held  naval  or  trading 
stations  in  Java,  Sumatra,  Borneo  and  New  Guinea. 

Portugal  owns  the  Ladrone  Islands  with  the  commodious 
harbor  of  Guam,  a  well  known  resort  for  American  whale- 
ships. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  principal  European  nations 
have  already  secured  the  strongest  strategic  points  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  where  trading,  coaling  and  naval  stations  have 
been  or  can  be  located;  while  the  United  States  does  not 
possess  a  solitary  coaling  station  beyond  her  coast  line,  and 
is  already  flanked  by  strong  French,  German  and  English 
stations,  where  in  case  of   war  she  would  be  compelled  to 

SEEK  THE  PRIVILEGE  OF  COALING  HER  SHIPS. 

The  termination  of  the  existing  treaty  may  have  a  more 
important  bearing  on  the  future  status  of  Hawaii  than  any 
one  can  now  anticipate.  Who  can  predict  what  secret  rivalry 
for  territorial  acquisition  in  the  Pacific  may  accomplish  dur- 
ing the  next  twenty  years?  It  is  more  than  a  mere  probability 
that  the  relation  now  sustained  by  the  United  States  to 
Hawaii  may  very  soon  be  filled  by  the  progressive  Dominion 
of  Canada,  which  may  be  said  to  be  only  waiting  her  op- 
poitunity.  Or  if  we  turn  to  the  westward,  it  should  not  be 
overlooked  that  both  China  and  Japan  are  becoming  largely 
interested  in  the  domestic  policy  of  Hawaii,  by  reason  of  the 
rapid  migration  of  their  people  thither.  It  may  not  be  an 
idle  conjecture  that  the  time  will  soon  come  when  either  of 
these  powers,  which  posses  navies  of  thirty  to  forty  vessels 
each,  some  of  them  ironclads,  will  make  demands  on  Hawaii 
which  cannot  be  refused  by  her  except  at  the  peril  of  losing 
her  independence,  backed  as  these  demands  can  be  by  a  naval 
force  more  powerful  than  that  maintained  by  any  other  nation 
in  the  Pacific.      Japan  or  China  will  soon  be  able  to   plant 


[     4     ] 

colonial  outposts  in  the  Central  Pacific,  as  readily  as  England, 
France  or  Germany,  and  people  them  far  more  readily. 

Whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  the  influence  of 
the  treaty  has  been  to  steadily  encourage  the  growth  of 
American  commerce  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  with  it  to 
strengthen  American  prestige  and  influence.  The  recently 
published  statistics  of  the  Hawaiian  Custom-house  show  most 
conclusively  that  of  the  foreign  commerce  of  Hawaii,  over  92 
per  cent,  has  been  with  the  United  States;  while  of  its  carry- 
ing trade  about  the  same  percentage  was  done  by  American 
vessels.  This  is  not  a  mere  accident  attending  the  Eociprocity 
Treaty,  but  the  legitimate  result  of  a  well-matured  measure, 
designed  to  foster  American  commerce,  and  which  is  accom- 
plishing the  design  to  a  greater  extent  than  is  generally 
known. 

From  a  paper  prepared  by  the  writer,  and  published  in 
1882,  having  a  direct  bearing  on  the  treaty,  the  following  ex- 
tracts are  inserted,  as  equally  appropriate  now  : 

'*  Having  referred  to  the  treaty  in  its  commercial  aspects, 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  it  possesses  a  political  feature 
as  impoi'tant  as  its  commercial.  When  it  was  under  discus- 
sion in  Congress  in  1875,  its  supporters  made  no  claim  that 
the  pecuniary  advantages  would  be  equally  shared  by  both 
nations,  but  frankly  conceded  that  they  would  preponderate 
in  favor  of  Hawaii.  Nor  was  the  treaty  granted  by  the  United 
States  so  much  for  any  supposed  commercial  advantages  to 
her  as  for  national  purposes.  Her  chief  design  and  purpose 
were  to  encourage  a  nation  in  the  Central  Pacific  that  might 
become  a  sugar-growing  field  for  her  Pacific  States  and  Ter- 
ritories— a  nation  regarded  as  almost  a  kin  to  her  —  that 
it  might  become  an  independent  people,  free  from  foreign 
complications  or  control,  and  still  attracted  to  her  by  the 
natural  ties  of  kinship  and  protector.  Secretary  Blaine,  in 
his  letter  to  Gen.  Comly,  late  American  Minister,  Kesident 
at  Honolulu,  briefly  and  clearly  states  the  whole  case  in  the 
following  extracts  : 

"The  situation  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  giving  them 
strategic  control  of  the  North  Pacific,  brings  their  possession 
within  the  range  of   questions   of   purely   American   policy,   as 


t    5    ] 

much  so  as  that,  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  Hence  the  necessity, 
as  recognized  in  our  existing  relations,  of  drawing  ties  of  inti- 
mate relationship  between  the  United  States  and  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  so  as  to  make  them  practically  part  of  the  American 
system,  without  deroccation  of  the  absolute  independence  "  *  *  * 
*'In  a  word,  Hawaii  is,  by  the  wise  and  beneficent  provisions  of 
the  treaty,  brought  within  the  circle  of  the  domestic  trade  of  the 
United  States,  and  our  interest  in  its  friendly  neutrality  is  the 
same  that  we  feel  in  the  guaranteed  independence  of  the  Isthmus 
of  Panama.  On  the  other  hand,  Hawaiian  interests  must  in- 
evitably turn  towards  the  United  States  in  the  future  as  the 
present,  as  their  natural  and  sole  ally  in  conserving  the  dominion 
of  both  in  the  Pacific  trade.  This  government  has  on  previous 
occasions  been  brought  face  to  face  with  the  question  of  a  pro- 
tectorate over  the  Hawaiian  groups.  It  has,  as  often  as  it  arose, 
been  set  aside  in  the  interest  of  such  commercial  union  and  such 
reciprocity  benefits  as  would  give  Hawaii  the  highest  advantages, 
and  at  the  same  time  strengthen  its  independent  existence  as  a 
sovereign  State.  In  this  I  have  summed  up  the  whole  disposi- 
tion of  the  United  States  toward  Hawaii  in  its  proper  condition." 

When  the  discussion  of  the  treaty  in  the  Senate  turned 
on  the  pecuniary  advantages  that  would  be  derived  from  it 
by  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  that  body  sought  and  obtained  a 
political  concession,  in  the  shape  of  a  pledge,  as  an  offset 
to  any  pecuniary  loss,  and  the  following  stipulation  was  in- 
serted in  Article  IV  : 

"  that  so  long  as  this  treaty  shall  remain  in  force,   he 

'*  (His  Majesty  the  king)  will  not  lease  or  otherwise  dispose  of, 
"  or  create  any  lien  in  any  port,  harbor  or  other  territory  in  his 
"  dominions,  or  grant  any  special  privileges  or  rights  of  use 
'*  therein  to  any  other  power,  state  or  government,  nor  make  any 
"  other  treaty,  by  which  any  other  nation  shall  obtain  the  same 
*•  privileges  relative  to  the  admission  of  any  articles  free  of  duty 
''  hereby  secured  to  the  United  States." 

The  astute  and  far-sighted  statesmanship  which  secured 
such  extraordinaiy  political  advantages  as  these,  amounting 
almost  to  a  pre-emption  right  in  Hawaii — which  some  Ha- 
waiians  have  thought  should  never  have  been  asked  or 
granted — cannot  reasonably  consent  to  the  abrogation  of  the 
treaty  on  account  of  a  pecuniary  advantage  gained  in  the 
bargain,  by  her  insular  neighbor.  The  higher  aims  of  na- 
tional policy  and  not  any  claims  of  sectional  interest  were 
consulted  in  granting  it ;  and  the  clamor  of  sectional  or  pri- 
vate interests  wall  not  set  it  aside.      Little  Hawaii  has  kept 


[61 

faith  with  her  great  benefactor,  even  enacting  laws  to  pro- 
tect the  interests  of  the  Treaty  and  preserve  its  faith,  and  it 
stands  before  the  world  for  honorable  treatment  and  the 
maintenance  of  a  carefully-considered  Treaty.  Can  a  few 
partisans,  spurred  on  by  an  interested  hostile  discussion,  or 
yielding  to  other  influences,  compromise  the  interests  of  the 
great  Eepublic  towards  this  little  State  ?  We  will  not  be- 
lieve it ! 

Abrogate  the  Treaty  —  and  some  other  nation  may 
hasten  to  secure  the  extraordinary  concessions  made  by  it, 
and  thus  acquire  a  claim  in,  and  power  over  our  archipelago, 
which  from  its  position  is  the  key  to  the  future  commerce  of 
the  Pacific,  which  may  steam  fiom  the  Atlantic  via  the  Pa- 
nama Isthmus,  to  oriental  ports,  and  to  the  numberless 
groups  scattered  over  this  ocean.  Preserve  the  Treaty — and 
so  long  as  it  lasts  no  nation  will  violate  its  provisions,  or 
meddle  with  Hawaii's  independence.  While  it  remains  in 
force,  it  is  a  standing  notice  to  all  that  Hawaii  shall  be  inde- 
pendent and  free  from  foreign  control.  Where  is  the  Ameri- 
can, who,  when  he  considers  the  vast  wealth  of  his  country, 
with  her  treasury  overflowing  with  an  annual  surplus  of  one 
hundred  millions—can  begrudge  the  comparatively  small  loss 
under  the  treaty,  or  who  can  show  a  bettor  way  to  maintain 
her  supremacy  in  this  ocean,  or,  perhaps  more  strictly  speak- 
ing, to  prevent  the  supremacy  of  every  oiher  power  ? 

American  ideas  and  the  spirit  of^ American  institutions 
are  spreading  over  the  world,  silently  but  powerfully  influenc- 
ing every  European  and  Asiatic  government  and  people. 
They  have  taken  root  in  Hawaii  and  raised  her  to  her  pre- 
sent condition  of  unexampled  prosperity.  And  from  this 
central  group  of  the  Pacific,  which  under  the  Treaty  is 
practically  an  American  Colony,  the  seeds  of  American  en- 
terprise, American  industry,  American  civilization,  with  all 
the  ennobling  influence  of  her  political  and  religious  institu- 
tions, are  being  scattered  over  this  ocean,  permeating  the 
masses  that  people  its  continents  and  islands.  With  such  a 
record  of  the  past,  and  a  grander  future  before  her,  Ameri- 
can statesmen  should  hesitate  before  surrendering  the  pre- 
cedence which  this  Treaty  secured  to  her  in  this  group   and 


[     7     ] 

throughout  this  ocean ;  especially  at  a  time  when  her  in- 
dustries are  calling  so  loudly  for  the  opening  of  new  avenues 
for  the  disbursement  of  the  surplus  products  and  manu- 
factures from  her  Western  prairies  and  her  Eastern  and 
Southern  workshops.  The  extraordinary  growth  in  the  de- 
mand for  these  products  in  this  group,  will  soon  extend  to 
those  lying  beyond  us,  till  the  millions  of  Polynesia  and 
Oceanica  will  learn  to  rely  on  America  for  subsistence,  to  be 
fed  and  clothed  by  American  industry,  as  Hawaii  now  is. 


Stockton,  Calif. 
T.  M.  Reg.  U.S.  Pat.  Off. 


^^^'^■-^  "^M^y 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


W.  -:■... 


,i/' 


